For anyone who has never been to a yoga class, you may have to use your imagination a bit and apply this to some other shared activity where you “claim your space” in a larger shared space (aerobics, fishing on a lake or river, maybe even parking your car or navigating a grocery cart through a crowded pre snowstorm store. Even where you sit in church.)

My thoughts on this have developed over a period of my own yoga awakening and events over the last week that showed me how something simple like setting up a yoga mat can be an example of judgment and mindfulness.

Over the years I have practiced yoga at a variety of levels, in a variety of places and with many instructors. I am an observant person, not much gets by me if I am sitting still.  So when I arrive early at a class, I have plenty of time to make observations. If I am not diligent about settling in for my own meditation, I am often distracted by the “chaos of the set up.” 

What is the “chaos of the set up?”

At most yoga studios there will always be a variety of attendees to a class.  Some will be old timers and know the drill, others will be nervous new comers who are struggling with questions and insecurities.  The basic nature of yoga is to be flexible and mindful of each individual’s different needs and abilities.  So, other than no shoes in the studio, there are not too many rules (if there are, you may want to find a different studio.)

Well…. here in lies a problem.  We walk into a yoga studio from a world full of rules and directions, after all we just had to park between two lines, and then we have to make an unguided choice as to where to set up our mats in a big empty room. There are no lines, we like to have as much space as possible, and we all have our own hang ups about which row we want to be in or who we want to be next to.

I have seen studios try and remedy this situation with all sorts of tricks, dots to tell you where to line up your mat, lines along the ground, instructors who are proactive and guide people.  But even with the best of intentions, things get out of whack. 

There is the one tall guy with the extra long mat who sets up first and throws off the rows, or the newbies in the back row who are just far enough from each other to not have room for a mat between them, but far enough that someone might just try and squeeze in (possibly to teach them a lesson.)  

Last Saturday in a particularly crowded class, my teacher mentioned that he has had to break up fights over mat space in classes before.  It gave me a chuckle as someone has observed this phenomenon for a while. As Americans we are protective of our space.

Here are my confessions: 

1.     There are times when I am sitting there looking around and realizing that I really should move over to make more space, but kind of hoping that I can get away with not doing so. 

2.     I have faked deep meditation to avoid dealing with it. 

3.     Sometimes I am annoyed that the teacher does not take charge and ask people to shift over and make room.

4.     And sometimes they do just that, and I am annoyed because the people had to be asked (yeah see #1).

5.     During this time I am judgmental (in the negative sense of the word)!

6.     There are days when I can accept that it is going to be tight or that it is not my problem to solve, and I remind myself that yoga is about community and tell myself to get over it (this is me on a good day!)

So yesterday I had the opportunity to meet my friend, Kris, in New York for a class by a pretty famous yogi, Sri Dharma Mittra (he has a Wikipedia page and everything!) I was attending a master class and knew I would not be nearly as advanced as most of the students, but I was happy just to be in the space and share my friend’s contagious enthusiasm over the training she had just completed with Dharma Mittra. 

Kris lined us up in the back row, I suspect in deference to my inability to do a headstand, but we moved up to be front row with the master and I am glad I could let go of my own self-judgment to do so.

I noticed that there were little strings along the floor and Kris explained that Dharma Mittra was kind of notorious for his mat organization/obsession. Interesting I thought….just so you know I really do think about this a LOT.

So the class started and as we went along I had fun observing. Every once in a while before starting a sequence Dharma would go to a section of the room and grab a mat and instruct a few people to move.

Since I had been warned, it did not surprise me. What I noticed, though, was that he was using judgment as defined in On Judgment…..I was wrong! Just a little bit…maybe. That being: “a decision that is based on careful thought.”  At first it seemed like he was making these moves kind of randomly, but after he did it a few times I could see that he had put careful thought into how the placement of the mats would effect the upcoming sequence for the students.

While he was using judgment, he was also using mindfulness.  He was deeply aware of the space and how each movement would create a different use of the space.  The fact that he could see how these minor adjustments would change the experience was masterful...ergo why he has a Wikipedia page.

I am not sure this will put an end to my musings at the beginning of a yoga class or that it will have a large impact the next time you pick your seat at church, but maybe it will make you think a little about space and how we orient to it changes our experience in each moment. See if you can use some careful thought to make a decision about the different spaces in your life and if you are making choices for maximum benefit or not.

Also think about how you deal when you are in an uncomfortable space and how those feelings impact you. How do you react to that one more person who squeezes in on the crowded elevator? Do you think “Really, can’t she just wait for the next one?” or “Sure there’s room for one more, she may be late to pick up her kids.” What does each of these thoughts do for the rest of your day?

Me…I was just happy that Dharma Mittra recognized that I (me me me) was in the perfect spot and never moved my mat. Thanks Kris for picking me a great spot!